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Sunday, September 11, 2016

By Claire Johnson
University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media

Nathan Bardeen of Eastern Kentucky University installed an alarm.(Photos by Shawn McLuckie, American Red Cross)

Many residents of Midway got an early wake-up call Saturday
as members of the American Red Cross, community volunteers and area fire
departments offered free installation and battery replacement of smoke alarms.

The project was part of the Red Cross Home Fire Campaign.

Steve Powell, the Red Cross disaster program manager for the
Bluegrass area, said the mission of the campaign is to reduce the number of
home fire deaths and injuries by 25 percent by 2019.

“Kentucky really took an initiative with this program and
leadership to make it a priority,” Powell said.

Fifteen members of the Red Cross and up to 30 volunteers
from the community and fire departments met at Midway Baptist Church before
setting out to their specified destinations on maps.

From morning to afternoon, Red Cross workers, volunteers, Eastern Kentucky University Fire & Safety program members and firefighters from the Midway and Woodford County fire departments worked door to door installing small smoke alarms and educating citizens about them.

Three-member teams, one Red Cross representative and two
assistants, visited on roughly 20 houses before re-supplying or receiving a map
of a different neighborhood.

A red vest and two fire department volunteers greeted the
citizens as they went door to door with supplies and safety information.

Chief Gerald Walsh of the Versailles Fire Department
designed the map of the town with highlighted areas.

“I arrange the streets by how many houses there were,” Walsh
said. “As they finish the street, I will hand them another map.”

Anne Peters, 58, who has lived in Midway for about 12 years,
thought her smoke detector was fine until one of the teams found that it needed
to be replaced.

“I had sort of been counting on it working,” Peters said
with a laugh. “So if it’s not working and they catch that, that’s definitely
helpful.”

After installing a detector, the teams made sure residents
like Peters knew two different exit plans to use in case of fire, and took down
their information to keep track of what they did in each home.

The Home Fire Campaign, according to Powell, is on pace to
install about 5,000 smoke alarms this year in Kentucky.

“Certainly it never hurts to have somebody remind you,”
Peters said. “A lot of people have lived here since the neighborhoods were
built, so they might not know about the regulations on smoke alarms.”

Bobby Allison, one Midwegian who had a home smoke alarm
installed Saturday, agreed that it can be hard to remember them.

“I don’t know how many people actually check them, or if
they think they’re just going to work forever, because they’re not,” Allison
said. “I try to check mine as much as I can when I think about it, but at 77
sometimes you forget.”

Midway firefighter Joe Hudson said reminding seniors is a
prime benefit of the campaign.

“We have a lot of older families that live in Midway and
they don’t even think about the smoke detectors until it’s brought to their
attention,” Hudson said.

Hudson recalled a woman who was hearing impaired and did not
know Red Cross offered bedside alarms. Hudson said one of the teams arranged for a Red
Cross member to contact her soon and get a bedside alarm for her.

“There’s a lot of them that’s very happy to see us out in
the community doing this for them,” Hudson said. “Midway is such a small, rural
community. You know, we’re kind of like the little back leg of the county and
nobody really thinks about it or anything until sometimes it’s too late.”

Powell said issues like Hudson mentioned are exactly why the
Red Cross tries to aid rural communities like Midway in the Home Fire Campaign.

“Not all of the rural towns are able to staff full-time fire
departments,” Powell said. “A lot of them are volunteer services,” Powell said.

Powell said the Home Fire Campaign has already been
documented saving three lives in Western Kentucky.

He said most people might not know how much fire work the
Red Cross does.

“I think when people think of the Red Cross they think of
natural disasters, but primarily what we respond to weekly are home fires,”
Powell said.

Shawn McLuckie of the Red Cross said educating citizens and
reducing fire deaths are the main goals of this campaign.

“This is completely free to all residents; we’re not
charging them a thing,” McLuckie said. “I feel it’s very good to come in to
these communities and do this. It gives the power of choice to the communities.
It’s reducing fire death and it’s making educated community members.”

Featured Post

News in and around the small but surprisingly interesting town of Midway, Ky., reported, written and photographed by students in community journalism classes in the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media, taught by Associate Extension Professor Al Cross, director of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues,www.RuralJournalism.org.